A Pro-Life 'Jihad'?

In the very heart of the pro-life community, there is nothing they wanted less than another shooting of an abortionist. An unhinged vigilante's shooting of notorious Kansas late-term abortion "provider" George Tiller prompted an avalanche of press releases from pro-life groups denouncing the killing.

Why bother? Let's face it. The national media had zero interest in spotlighting a pro-life spokesman expressing horror, because let's face it, they don't believe it. Instead, as with ABC, they found anonymous citizens on the website Twitter saying "Oh, happy, day. Tiller the baby killer is dead." Another wrote, "God bless the gunman."

It was time for a barrage of liberal mudslinging. Keith Olbermann started his MSNBC program with these words: "A religious jihad by fundamentalist crusaders who believe that murder is justified, their acts of violence having the intended effect of changing behavior. Our fifth story on the Countdown: Not the Taliban, not Hamas, not al-Qaida."

He was referring to conservative politicians and bloggers and the Fox News Channel. Olbermann insisted there was a "straight line" of culpability from Fox News to the Tiller shooter. He played clips of O'Reilly disparaging Tiller: "For $5,000 dollars, Tiller, 'the baby killer,' as some call him, will perform a late-term abortion for just about any reason." And: "Tiller the baby killer out in Kansas, acquitted. Acquitted today of murdering babies. There's got to be a special place in hell for this guy."

Olbermann was so offended he called for a boycott of businesses that allow a Fox News infection in public.

"Don't write a letter, don't make a threat, just get up and explain, if they will not change the channel," he exclaimed, "leave the place and say calmly why it is you are taking your business elsewhere. If you know a viewer of that channel, show them this tape, or just the tape of the attacks on Dr. Tiller that set the stage for his assassination. Fox News Channel will never restrain itself from incitement to murder and terrorism, not until its profits begin to decline, when its growth
stops. So not so much a boycott here as a quarantine, because this has got to stop."

The Tiller assassination? Olbermann insisted that the mere act of denouncing Tiller as a killer of babies -- as if he were instead removing tumors -- is an invitation to terrorism and murder. This was not a call for moderation by the pro-life movement, but for rhetorical surrender.